I have quite a few grievances with LA. Mainly, I hate how car oriented the entire joint feels. I love walking–walking to the grocery store, to dinner, to no where in particular. After spending a bit of time there this April, I needed to put my sneakers to use and shake that uber-everywhere-culture. (but first, enjoy these lovely snaps of a smoggy sunset and gratuitous Nike photos)
On a beautiful Saturday afternoon, a few friends and I drove down the coast. We made it all the way to Rancho Palos Verdes–to Pelican Cove Park. This beautiful oceanside public park has a few trails that are quick and scenic, and it’s only about an hour south of LA. Don’t forget to swing by Monkish Brewing if you head out that way. 
Now to the north, all the way to Santa Clarita. This beautiful little city’s provided the main locations for Westworld Seasons 1 and 2. Since the area has had an atypical amount of rain, it’s much greener than it usually is. Have you noticed all the wild flowers yet? I don’t think they qualify as a super bloom, but they are super pretty.
Do you know any good day hikes in the LA area?
for the love of nike 
Of course I do. I may live in New Orleans and claim Brooklyn s my birth place, but I grew up in Long Beach. You can walk to the Hollywood sign from many points. You can hike throughout Griffith Park. A good part of the LA River has been reclaimed from the industrial drain it once was. A few miles south of where you hiked is another good walk down to what was WWII gun emplacements and if I’m not mistaken the former Fort MacArthur, just above that is open for long walks too. And, then there are the hills above Malibu, that according to a friend who lives near there are rebounding nicely from last years fires, where you can walk to the old site of the MASH television series. That help? 🙂
perfect! great list!! thank you, Ray 🙂
Welcome, y’all.
As an LA native, I agree there are plenty of reasons to hate the place, but there are also plenty of reasons to love it. And while cars do dominate, it’s not so hard to get around via walking/transit as most people think. I’ve never owned a car, and I still manage to make it wherever I need to go. As Ray points out, you don’t need to drive to Palos Verdes or Santa Clarita to find cool hiking trails. Griffith Park is great. You should also check out the LA River, where you can find a number of good hiking and biking trails. There are lots of cool places to explore in the Santa Monica Mountains. If you want to go to the beach you can take the Expo Line all the way out to Santa Monica. If you feel like an urban hike, Downtown has everything from classic movie palaces (the Orpheum, the Los Angeles), ancient speakeasies (Cole’s on Sixth), and classic cafeterias (Clifton’s), to cutting edge architecture by Arata Isozaki, Frank Gehry and DS+R. Other urban areas tend to have most of the good stuff clustered in the city center, and LA is definitely more spread out, but it’s worth doing a little digging to find the treasures. And really, you don’t even have to dig that deep.
By the way, I love the first photo. Classic image of LA as the poisonous urban dystopia, which in some ways it totally is.
What a great, easy to follow list. There isn’t a lot of information I could find easily with ideas of what to do in LA–but this list is it! Thank you for sharing. I’ll definitely use this the next time I’m in the area.